Egypt inks $352 mln deal with Siemens to manage power stations

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CAIRO, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Egypt on Thursday signed a $352 million contract with Siemens AG and Siemens Technologie to manage three gigantic new power plants built to plug a gap in Egypt’s electricity needs, state news agency MENA reported.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi opened the power stations in July, which were built by Siemens at a total cost of 6 billion euros ($7 billion).

Egypt commissioned the plants at a time when the Arab country was suffering rolling blackouts and industries were forced to closed down for months at a time.

The two companies will manage, operate and maintain the three power stations, billed as the biggest in the world when construction began in 2015, at the new administrative capital east of Cairo, at Burullus in the northern Nile Delta and at Beni Suef south of Cairo, MENA said.

Each plant generates 4.8 gigawatts of power.

Egypt’s state Electricity Holding Company said that Siemens would contract experts from the state-run firm to manage, operate and maintain the power stations after they receive training in Germany, MENA quoted the state company’s head as saying. ($1 = 17.8500 Egyptian pounds) ($1 = 0.8546 euros) (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba, writing by Sami Aboudi, editing by Patrick Werr and Alexandra Hudson)